66: Over a woman

Over a woman

"Arkin! Stop!" Adela cried out, pushing herself out of the bed.2

Her eyes desperately tried to follow the intense battle that had erupted between the kingdom's strongest knight and a beast with immense hidden powers. But neither of them allowed her the opportunity to physically intervene.

"Get a grip on yourself and obey her!" Egon barked.

Arkin was forced back, crashing into her vanity mirror and shattering it into countless pieces.

She screamed once more when her eyes followed Arkin's counterattack, "You've misunderstood! He didn't come here to harm me!"

Egon skilfully defended himself against Arkin's relentless sword strikes. But Arkin charged at Egon once again, driven by unwavering determination.

"Stop! Both of you!" Her throat ached from the force of her screams.

Egon's agility and control over his powers were apparent. His movements seemed almost effortless without the weight of armor. As if he could predict the next strike, he maneuvered through the chaos of the fight and finally managed to disarm Arkin with a swift kick to the wrist.

When Arkin bent down to retrieve his sword, Egon followed up with an elbow strike to the back of the knight's head, his eyes shifted into those of his beastly self, his arm poised to strike.

Adela's fear for Arkin's life overwhelmed her.

"Egon! Don't hurt him!"

Contrary to all the blows that failed to stop the beastman, Adela's heartfelt plea for mercy caused Egon's hand to freeze in the air. He looked at her, his eyes returning to their normal state, his sweat-drenched face betraying pain caused by her plea.

Everything happened in a blur, yet Adela perceived each moment as if time had slowed down.

The lady and the beast witnessed Arkin's hand gripping the sword once more, yet Egon's gaze that was turned at Adela was cold and accusing. He lowered all his defenses, providing the opening for Arkin's sword to strike its mark.

"Arkin! I order you to stop at once!" Adela screamed.

The blade that had pierced Egon's shoulder causing a profuse flow of crimson blood clattered to the floor. He clenched his teeth, seemingly suppressing his instinct to retaliate.

Trembling, Adela grabbed her white bed sheet and hurriedly brought it over to where Egon was seated on the ground, panting, alongside a similarly positioned and panting Arkin. She pressed the sheet onto Egon's wounded shoulder, causing him to grimace slightly under the pressure, while her gaze turned piercingly towards her knight.

The unprecedented animosity radiating from Adela's eyes sent a shiver of fear through the knight's typically steady spine.

"I thought I told you to stop,"

She spoke with a tone that made Arkin cringe. But he quickly adjusted.

"Are you blind? Can you not see that this man is responsible for everything that has gone wrong in our lives?"

The painful truth behind her knight's words shook her deeply, fuelling her following response with acid.

"And what about you? Does this thoughtless action, which goes against my direct orders, improve the already dire situation my family is facing?" She lowered her head, intensifying her glare. "You have gone too far, Arkin. Never in my life did I imagine that I would regret accepting your oath of fealty. I could never have believed that a nobleman like Sir Arkin would attack an unarmed man."

Arkin's face twisted momentarily before hardening, concealing his true emotions.

"Leave," she said icily. Her green eyes had never appeared so frigid.

Arkin hesitated; his gaze filled with seething anger towards Egon. "Not until he leaves first,"

Adela bit her tongue, apparently, Arkin was beyond reasoning with when it came to her safety. 

"As I was explaining to Egon—who came into this room after hearing that I was all alone and seeing the guards asleep outside— I am perfectly capable of protecting myself. He will leave once I have tended to his wound... Our conversation that was over will now be resumed thanks to your interference."

Flushed with anger, Arkin pushed himself up and stormed towards the door, pausing briefly to shoot a final dagger-like glare at Egon before leaving the door open and disappearing.

Adela sighed heavily when she gazed up at Egon and saw a faint smile on his handsome face. Pressing the sheet against his shoulder, she prepared herself to remove it and assess his wound, silently praying that the unseen light had worked its magic.

"A wound like that will likely need stitches, but I'm afraid I cannot perform them for you," she admitted.

"Why?" he whispered, his words brushing gently against her face, filled with tenderness.

"Stitching is not my area of expertise... I fear it may leave a scar," 

"If only it would," he murmured.

"Excuse me?" she inquired, peering into his eyes, attempting to unravel his meaning.

The first rays of the morning sun crept through Adela's window, bringing a smile that blossomed on Egon's lips and a boyish twinkle in his eyes. "A scar would be a tale I could proudly share, claiming it was earned over a woman."

She wished her stomach did not react the way it did when she was around him,  "Quite talkative today, aren't you..." she brushed it off and focused on removing the blood-soaked sheets from over his wound now.

It was easy to occupy her mind with that since she had noticed a disparity in the images of her dreams—the light seemed to affect Egon far more profoundly than anyone else, as if his body absorbed it like a sponge.

Was she prepared to reveal her true nature to the man who had never concealed his own?

"Egon... Does your wound still cause you great pain? Or has it improved, perhaps..." she hesitated, her voice filled with concern.

He regarded her with a peculiar expression on his face. "I don't know, you tell me. Aren't you going to check?"

Summoning her courage, she braced herself and removed the sheets. Fear gripped her to the core at the sight of his torn, blood-soaked shirt and the crimson blood that covered his torso, but right in the center of the entire mess, his bronze skin remained unblemished.

Not a single trace of a cut...

"Don't be afraid," he reassured her, his words echoing those spoken to her in this very room before. "Your secret is safe with me."

His intense gaze fixed upon her, causing a blush to rise to her pale cheeks.

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